Friday, March 23, 2007

Look What They've Done

In the early 70’s a movie called the “Godfather” came out. It has been on TV many times since and it depicts the sordid lifestyle of the Mafia. One of the scenes has haunted me after I became a Christian.The Godfather’s son, Sonny Coreleone, is murdered on the parkway. Since the mortician owes his father a favor the body is brought to this particular undertaker. Vito, the father, comes to see his son’s body and as he enters the room for preparing the body he pulls down the sheet and is aghast as what he sees. As he sobs he says,

“Look how they’ve massacred my boy”.

Even though Vito Coreleone has himself murdered others, you could feel the pathos in his voice as he grieves over his son. After I became a Christian that scene brought me to a parable by Christ Himself.

Matt.21:33-44 - Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast [him] out of the vineyard, and slew [him]. When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out [his] vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

The liberals have reduced Him; the seeker sensitives have dressed Him down; the purpose driven people have pragmatized Him; and the Roman Church has marginalized Him. And now comes the emergent church movement. This mercurial movement seeks to redefine who Jesus is and what role He plays in salvation. As far as anyone can tell they present Jesus through the prism of a post modern culture with the New Testament as a helpful resource. I must remind the emergents as to what the New Testament teaches about Christ, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

When a person believes on the Lord Jesus Christ and is born again he enters the life of Christ and he leaves his former life. Preachers have erroneously taught that you can ask Jesus to “come into your life” and he will help you live your life. That is false. Jesus will help you live His life. What part of Gal.2:20 was left out of the emergent Bible?

This emergent movement is probably liberal theology all dressed up and ready for this post modern culture. I must credit Ken Silva for sharing the information that opened my eyes to the emergent church before which I was happily ignorant of. It is one thing to alter your view of certain sins such as homosexuality, and it is one thing to change the method of preaching the gospel to accommodate the unconcerned, but it is the highest blasphemy to alter the truth about the Eternal Son of God.

In today’s evangelical cross culture there is not just another Jesus, no, there are many other Jesus’s defined by the carnal flesh of man and not the absolute authority of God’s Word. And what is going to be the climax of such movements? It is none other than the Anti-christ himself who is behind all these new theologies and he will be the stream into which all these error filled tributaries will flow. And it will not be difficult for people to accept him, by then they will be used to new and creative ideas about everything. He is either the same yesterday, today, and forever or He is not.

So today many movements have taken the Lord Jesus for an unfettered ride in a doctrinal merry-go-round. It wasn’t enough that our Savior had to endure the open shame of a Roman cross, no, He now must endure the vacillating definitions of man which are sculpted to mesh with man’s fleshly imaginations. Like a character in a fairy tale they have stripped Him of His sacredness and made Him a man with an earthly mission with eternal redemption as an aside. That is abject blasphemy.

So what must the Father think about all of this spiritual witchcraft? Do you think He just lets it pass? Does He ignore it? Does He think, oh well, everyone is entitled to their own opinion? Does He enjoy a good dialogue about who His Son is? Or does He say,

“Look what they’ve done to My Son!”

And here is where the Godfather analogy departs. In the movie the father calls for peace. But the Heavenly Father offers no olive branch when the door of the ark finally closes. No one has witnessed vengeance like the kind that God will unleash upon this world. And God doesn’t refer to the most evil spirit as an anti-salvation spirit, or an anti-Holy Spirit spirit, or an anti-Father spirit, no, the most hated enemy of the Lord is an anti-christ spirit that comes against the Lord Jesus, the only begotten Son of the Living God. I warn you, all you who treat the Lord Jesus as recreational dialogue, you should repent before it is too late because the night is far spent. It is impossible to over deify Jesus but it is commonplace to strip Him of the Creator God status that is His. This is a cavern you should never enter, and while the Old Testament saints would avoid the very mention of His name today’s hip hop theologians bandy His name about as if they were trading baseball cards. It is anti-christ from the beginning to the end. To revisit the theology concerning Jesus is to visit God’s judgment on yourself and you and your humanistic Christology will be ground to powder.

The Holy Spirit said that anyone who brings or preaches another Jesus is to be anathema maranatha. Now most of us recognize the word maranatha which means until he comes but the word anathema is a very serious word. It means an object that has been especially set apart for divine wrath and judgment. So anyone who changes the Scriptural revelation of the Lord Jesus is now targeted as an object of God’s divine wrath until Jesus comes back. And then what? Am I saying that a once orthodox follower of Jesus who is now preaching another Jesus will wind up in hell? Careful, I'm an Arminian so you don't want to know what I believe could be a possibility. (See Hebrews 6 & 10 complete with my interpretation) But I know one thing:

5 comments:

Well done Rick. I too have been highly ignorant of what the emergent "church" really is. What is so puzzling to me is how outraged they are at those of us (including you) who tell the truth from God's Word to them. Jesus asked, "Why do you call me Lord, Lord, if you don't do what I say?" What an indictment. These fellows seem to think that their theology is just fine because it makes them feel good. It doesn't matter that the Bible teaches all through it that God demands obedience. They say that they can pick and choose what part of the Bible to obey. How decieved they are! Yes, I would hate to be one of them in the day our Lord returns since they have blasphemed His name and lied about God and His ways.

I believe that our Lord is calling His remnant to disasociate ourselves from the Emergement Movement and other false relions because it is tearing down the cross. This is not going to be easy because then we will be tearing down satan's plan and he will attack but we must stand firm.Thank you for such a good post.

1 Peter 4:16-19 However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

Rick,An excellent post! Very well stated. I was at one point associated with an emergent "group" (they generally didn't like to refer to themselves as a church)... after a short time I began to realize that my beliefs were at odds with almost everything that was taught at this church. And that was when my journey began to learn more about this movement. I thank God for showing me the light, and for bringing me to people such as yourself.

I remember we put on the Veritas forum at UCLA and invited Erwin McManus from Mosaic to speak. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I didn't know anything about the guy at the time, much less that he was a full-blown heretic.

The emergent church is just 1930s liberalism dressed up in modern form. The future for the church in the US doesn't look too pretty right now.

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Additional communications to me may be e-mailed to spcrick@msn.com. Any negative e-mails will be deleted without response, however sincere questions will be answered. I seek edification and deeper knowledge of Christ and His truth not a destructive and meaningless religious chatter. May God's Spirit open all of our hearts to Him.

About Me

I am an ordained Baptist minister but more importantly I am a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. I was saved in 1975 watching Billy Graham on television after having lived a wicked and Christless life. I graduated with a three year degree from Trinity Bible College in Dunedin, Florida. I have three children, two grandsons, and one granddaughter. I not only see the obvious falling away of the present day church, but I humbly acknowledge that we all are in desperate need of a massive revival. I hope this blog ministers to you, and may Jesus Himself receive all the preeminence!
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